As part of a bid to understand why so many Chinese gamers are obsessed with online games, a “preliminary” study was conducted with hopes that the findings could assist in the prevention and treatment of those afflicted.

Researchers Wei Peng and Ming Liu began by defining online gaming dependency as “a psychological state characterized by psychological discomfort experienced by online gamers when they are unable to play online games as they wish.”

The study (PDF) sampled 166 Chinese online gamers, who, on average, had been playing online games for around six years. On a normal weekday, those queried averaged 3.06 hours in-game, a figure that shot up to 5 hours per weekend day.

The main contributing factors to online gaming dependency, according to the researchers, were:

• Maladaptive Cognition—“Online gamers may perceive that they are much more valuable and successful in the virtual online game world than in the offline real world…”• Shyness—“Online social interactions can be especially appealing and important for shy Internet users who otherwise may have their social needs unmet.”• Depression—“Depressed people may be especially attentive to media content that can lessen their dysphoria.”• Negative Consequences—Online gamers were more likely to suffer from maladies such as physical, personal life and academic/professional problems.

Saying that the study was "one of the first attempts to examine the online gaming dependency phenomenon in China using a theoretical approach," the researchers wrote:

The strong correlations between online gaming dependency and real-life problems suggest that online gaming with psychological dependency is likely to become a negative activity that results in various detrimental effects in offline contexts. Even with a relatively low online gaming dependency, players may still experience some negative life consequences.

What’s the best way to treat these type of gamers?

The finding suggests that for the prevention and treatment of online gaming dependency, it is critical for health professionals to attend to the presence of maladaptive thoughts among online gamers. Different from other types of dependency, the amount of exposure may not be the deciding factor for media-related dependency.

This finding further suggests that simply reducing the amount of time spent on online gaming may not be an effective solution to prevent or recover from dependent online gaming if the cognitive and psychological problems of the player still exist. The practical implication of this finding is that parents, teachers, and counselors should be aware of and pay enough attention to the psychological well-being as well as cognitions of the players they try to help.

Comments

& they are one of the most intelligent people in the world too. Gaming intelligent Chinese are highly intelligent & probably don't have a problem in the real life. But I could be wrong.

They are still considered gamers, just like others that aren't Chinese & live in other countries game just as hard. But does that mean that we (gamers) have maladaptive personalities? Or Shyness? Or Depression? Or negative consequences that will happen? NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! The majority of gamers is not any of these they pointed out. IMO, it is just stereotyping.

"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry

"It's better to be hated for who you are, then be loved for who you are not." - Montgomery Gentry

(1) Asymmetric birth rates. China current has a 105:100 ratio going on, meaning a good chunk of the population has minimal dating prospects. This is aggravated by:

(2) Asymmetric dating. China still has a very strong 'girls marry up, boys marry down' mentality. So males near the bottom of the social order have few options, and females near the top (or even middle class) also have few.

Since the upper/middle/lower breakdown is still a pyramid, women tend to compete for a smaller number of males above them and not consider males below them while males compete for an unusually small number of females below them. Thus you get both males and females escaping into gaming since their socially acceptable dating prospects are very poor.

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Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm